Hopefully you can help me solve a puzzle. Here we see the Dovado UMR with an O2 UK Pay As You Go USB modem (Huawei E160). The UMR has been reset to its factory settings, so there is no Access Point Name (APN) configured. However not a problem apparently and the modem successfully connects to the O2 mobile broadband network.

This kind of thing happens, for sure. Many operators place a default APN on the SIM card or in the USB modem itself (only on operator-branded versions). Mind you, it’s not on ALL operator-sold modems, which is why the APN field is in the UMR, like in all 3G routers. I think it’s great to avoid the use of an APN, but considering you don’t know which one it is you’re using, you can always specify it in the UMR, and it’ll use that one instead. The UMR will always check if there is an APN in the modem first if the setup does not include a filled APN field.

For those of you using CDMA, there is no need for an APN at all since it’s a different setup altogether. It usually requires a username and password, otherwise many operators run the default “cdma/cdma” as user/pass.

I thought it was because the Dovado product come pre-loaded with new information about different carriers, hence why they keep releasing updates for different dongles etc. http://www.dovado.com/umrmodems.html